A new autism research initiative led by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aims to bring together one of the largest collections of private medical data ever assembled. According to reports, the project, which is backed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), hopes to uncover 'hidden patterns' in autism by uniting previously disconnected records from across public and private healthcare systems.
The effort includes creating a national autism registry, combining medication histories, lab tests, genomic information, health insurance claims, and even data from smartwatches and fitness trackers. NIH Director Dr Jay Bhattacharya described the project as 'a transformative real-world data initiative,' built to give researchers a clearer picture of autism and its causes.
